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Welcome
Since 1989, Communities In Schools of Northeast Florida has been serving children. The organization is a non-profit, community based dropout prevention organization whose mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.
Communities In Schools helps students stay in school and make the right choices by connecting schools with needed community resources. By bringing services, community agencies, parents, and volunteers into schools, the organization creates a community of caring adults who work hand in hand with educators. The result: Teachers are free to teach and students can concentrate on learning.
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Why Communities In Schools?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned an extensive study, "The Silent Epidemic," on why so many students are dropping out of high school. Nationally, graduation rates are between 68 and 71%; almost one third of public high school students fail to graduate.
Many children in our community struggle with issues related to poverty, violence, homelessness, and substance abuse. These realities come to school with our children and become barriers to academic success. It is impossible for a child to separate the circumstances of life from the learning environment.
Families are struggling to survive and, without support, are often unable to provide an environment that supports academic achievement for their children. Clearly, there is an increased community opportunity and responsibility to address low graduation rates that are mitigated by poverty, violence, homelessness, and substance abuse.
Sometimes parents and schools can't do it alone.
Keeping students in school is a community challenge – involving everyone, neighbors, business leaders, counselors, mentors, tutors, and volunteers. It's like putting together a puzzle. When you put all the puzzle parts together in the right way, the children have a greater chance for a brighter future. Communities In Schools helps connect the pieces.
The CIS Approach
Most communities have resources available to help students succeed in school and prepare for life – but they may be in the wrong place. Children and families must first locate and then travel to agencies all over town, usually during school hours and with no way to coordinate the various services.
Communities In Schools reverses this process, bringing resources and relationships to where the children already spend their days – at school. These resources are delivered in a caring, coordinated manner. The result is that students are succeeding in school.
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